Arunachal: Capital city witnesses deserted violent look due to 12-hour bandh today

ITANAGAR: Arunachal Pradesh capital Itanagar today got a deserted violent look as an apex students body, ANSU called for 12 hour bandh from 5am to 5pm.

Apex students body of a major populated tribe of Arunachal Nyishi, All Nyishi Students Union gave 12 hour bandh call in Capital city after which whole capital city came on halt where not a single private car was allowed to move by the protestors of students body.

Education scenario is very bad in Arunachal as every year poor cbse results show the inability of education department to the people.

ANSU came forward to fight with education department to improve the education scenario by pressuring the government by calling bandh call.

All shops, petrol pumps, offices where seen closed since morning and thousands of protestors marched pass in city in front of heavy security personnels deployed to check any violent incident.

As the bandh call was declared illegal by the district administration heavy deployment of forces was made in every book and corner of the city.

However one police vehicle was vandalised by the protestors whose driver was found drunk and was adamant to stop the vehicle which was off duty. In few locations tyres were burnt to block the national highway and protestors gheraod many vehicles of bureaucrats and officers who were trying to reach their offices.

All Nyishi Students’ Union (ANSU) has called a 12-hour Itanagar Capital Region to demand the transfer of Commissioner Education IAS Niharika Rai from the state and dropping of a criminal case against their members.

Regarding their first demand, the union alleged that Niharika Rai is inefficient in delivering justice to the students and has no right to hold any office in Arunachal Pradesh. Instead of paying heeds to the prayer on the 14 points demands to improve the education scenario in the hilly state the union alleged she showed a careless and negligent attitude. Despite pressing for these demands for many months, they received no support from the education department, they said.

Niharika Rai is holding four departments as commissioner and Secretary due to which many works get pending and delayed due to her absence in particular one office.

Regarding their second demand, the union stated that their central executive members met with Chief Minister Pema khnadu on the aforementioned 14-points in September. However, while entering the state civil secretariat, the members got into an argument with the police on duty. As per the Union, the matter was resolved after the meeting with CM. But a few days later, the union received a call informing about an FIR registered against the union.

Civil Secretariat at Itanagar has all the main department offices and Chief Minister office where entry was restricted since one year due to covid protocols but now when covid cases are almost nil in state the officers,bureaucrats and ministers are still maintaining distance with the common public leaders and other ngos.

During the day-long bandh, the union has exempted ambulance services, medical services, pharmacies, district magistrates, police personnel on duty, media persons, milk vans and fire services.

The district administration had called ANSU for a meeting to find a solution to the problem, but ANSU refused to attend the meeting and stated that they had been waiting for three months but now calling the meeting at the last moment was of no use.

The district administration declared the proposed bandh as illegal and imposed Section 144 of the CrPC.

Meanwhile, the union’s leaders also threatened to intensify their agitation if the government failed to meet their demands after the bandh on 23 November.

Deputy commissioner of capital Itanagar IAS Talo Potom urged the student leaders and youths to maintain peace. DC informed that no big violence or vandalism was reported and the bandh is going on peacefully.

Home minister of Arunachal Bamang Felix in a press conference informed that out of fourteen demands by ANSU many are been fulfilled and now this demand of transferring an IAS officer Niharika Rai is baseless. Regarding protocols to enter Civil Secretariat home minister informed that sometimes the security personals didn't get informed about the appointments taken by the civilians due to some loopholes in coordination which is a harassment at entry point to the visitors.

This will be corrected and minister said that now as covid restrictions are easing common public can come to the secretariat by taking appointments to pursue their official works.

The 14-point demand that the union placed before the CM include immediate cancellation of tender for procurement and supply of school uniforms by the director of secondary education; corpus fund for teachers’ welfare for every school of the state, including Nyishi-inhabited areas, to carry out curriculum activities; immediate recruitment of TGTs/PGTs against sanctioned vacant posts; revocation of the DBT system or creation of a better system as the DBT system is not working properly across the state; introduction of uniformity of school fees for various private schools; closure of all zero enrolment schools; proper utilization of infrastructure for better purposes, etc.